The 2011 Video Games I’m Most Looking Forward To

Some years just plain suck for video games; when there’s hardly any inter­est­ing new titles to look for­ward to, and the hype sur­round­ing big releases turns out to be more excit­ing than the actual game.  2011 is not going to be one of those years .

At the begin­ning of every year, I like to make a list of all the upcom­ing games I want to play and HOLY SHIT  this year is going to be awe­some (not to men­tion expen­sive).  Here’s what I’m look­ing for­ward to the most (as in, I will go out of my way to get these games on release day), in order of release date:

Dragon Age II

Release Date: March 8, 2011
Platform(s): PC, PlaySta­tion 3, Xbox 360

Set in the same world of Thedas, this sequel to Dragon Age: Ori­gins takes place in a dif­fer­ent region of the map called the Free Marches.  Play­ers take on the role of Hawke, a sur­vivor of the Blight and Cham­pion of Kirk­wall who rises to power through­out the game, which spans a decade.  One really inter­est­ing fea­ture is that the player can import data from Dragon Age: Ori­gins which will reflect choices that the player made in the orig­i­nal game.  One of the major things play­ers com­plained about in Ori­gins were the graph­ics.  So far, screen­shots have promised to be a major improvement.

Black Mir­ror 3: Final Fear

Release Date: April 12, 2011
Platform(s): PC

The third and final chap­ter of the The Black Mir­ror point-and-click adven­ture hor­ror series for PC picks up where the sec­ond game ends. Play­ers return as pro­tag­o­nist Dar­ren Michaels, who is haunted by the generations-old curse that runs through his bloodline.

Red Johnson’s Chronicles

Release Date: TBA, Spring 2011
Platform(s): PlaySta­tion 3

This PS3 exclu­sive promises to be a cross between the CSI and Profes­sor Lay­ton titles in terms of game­play, with beau­ti­ful, styl­is­tic graph­ics that take full advan­tage of the PS3 hard­ware. You play as Red, a pri­vate eye inves­ti­gat­ing a high pro­file mur­der in a gritty, urban set­ting akin to New York City. This may turn out to be the most adventure-ish adven­ture game yet for PS3!

Por­tal 2

Release Date: April 18, 2011
Platform(s): PC, PlaySta­tion 3, Xbox 360

Por­tal was the sur­prise hit of 2007, and fans of the orig­i­nal game have been clam­or­ing for a sequel ever since.  In Por­tal 2, play­ers return to the Aper­ture Sci­ence facil­ity to find it dilap­i­dated and will again face rig­or­ous phys­i­cal tests as we help to rebuild.  We can expect the same inno­v­a­tive style of physics-based puz­zle game­play that made the orig­i­nal so great.

L.A. Noire

Release Date: May 17, 2011
Platform(s): PlaySta­tion 3, Xbox 360

Set in a very real­is­tic 1947 Los Ange­les cre­ated as a visual homage to 1940s noir films, L.A. Noire will have play­ers solv­ing mur­der mys­ter­ies in an open-ended, sand­box style envi­ron­ment.  Rock­star promises to deliver “a vio­lent crime thriller that blends breath­tak­ing action with true detec­tive work to deliver an unprece­dented inter­ac­tive expe­ri­ence.”  If this game turns out to be any­where near as good as Red Dead Redemp­tion, I think we can safely put it in the run­ning for Game of the Year.

ICO / Shadow of the Colos­sus HD Collection

Release Date: Q1/Q2 2011
Platform(s): PlaySta­tion 3

Orig­i­nally released on PlaySta­tion 2, ICO and its spir­i­tual suc­ces­sor Shadow of the Colos­sus are con­sid­ered to be two of the most impor­tant games in terms of artis­tic expres­sion and emo­tional response.  Fans of the orig­i­nals as well as new play­ers who want to expe­ri­ence these jour­neys for the first time will be treated to a high-definition remake for the PS3 that will also sup­port 3D.

The Last Guardian

Release Date: Q4 2011
Platform(s): PlaySta­tion 3

The newest Team ICO title that fans of ICO and Shadow of the Colos­sus are eagerly await­ing, The Last Guardian will share the same styl­is­tic, the­matic, and game­play ele­ments of its predecessors.

Alice: Mad­ness Returns

Release Date: Q4 2011
Platform(s): PC, PlaySta­tion 3, Xbox 360

If you were a fan of Amer­i­can McGee’s crit­i­cally acclaimed Alice game for PC, no doubt that this upcom­ing sequel—also designed by Amer­i­can McGee—is on your radar.  Tak­ing place 11 years after the events in the first game, Alice relo­cates from Rut­ledge Asy­lum to the care of a psy­chi­a­trist in Lon­don where she con­tin­ues to strug­gle with real­ity, slips back into mad­ness and returns a Won­der­land over­rid­den with evil.

Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception

Release Date: Novem­ber 1, 2011
Platform(s): Playsta­tion 3

I con­sider Uncharted and its first sequel two of the best games I have ever played—and I have played a lot of games.  I can’t even begin to imag­ine how devel­oper Naughty Dog will be able to top itself with this third install­ment.  The game is set pri­mar­ily against the arid, desert back­drop of  the Ara­bian Penin­sula as pro­tag­o­nist Nathan Drake goes in search of the leg­endary lost city, Iram of the Pil­lars.  The story will focus heav­ily on the friend­ship between Drake and his men­tor and fre­quent trav­el­ing com­pan­ion Vic­tor Sullivan.

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Release Date: Novem­ber 11, 2011
Platform(s): PC, PlaySta­tion 3, Xbox 360

Tak­ing place two-hundred years after the events of Elder Scrolls IV: Obliv­ion (which, btw, if you haven’t played it, shame on you),  Skyrim returns play­ers to Tam­riel, which has erupted into civil war. Play­ers take on the role of the last-surviving Dovahkiin (trans­la­tion: “Drag­onborn”) to save the world from Alduin, god of destruc­tion.   As in pre­vi­ous Elder Scrolls games, I expect an adven­ture of epic pro­por­tions.  The lat­est issue of Game­In­former has a GORGEOUS 10-page spread pre­view of this game, and it looks absolutely stunning.

I Am Alive

Release Date: TBA, 2011
Platform(s): PC, PlaySta­tion 3, Xbox 360, Nin­tendo Wii

A new, orig­i­nal (read: non-sequel) title that I’m really excited about.  A major earth­quake has destroyed Chicago and sep­a­rated it from the main­land.  Your goal is to sur­vive the apocalyptic-like sur­round­ings by for­ag­ing for food and water, and ward­ing off enemies—other human beings who threaten your own sur­vival.  Oh yeah, and you’re also try­ing to find and res­cue your miss­ing girl­friend, too.  The game has been in devel­op­ment since 2005 and suf­fered numer­ous set­backs, but is planned to be released some­time this year.

The Leg­end of Zelda: Sky­ward Sword

Release Date: TBA, 2011
Platform(s): Nin­tendo Wii

2011 is a pretty piti­ful year for Wii games, with not many new titles on the hori­zon.  But a new Zelda game, typ­i­cally her­alded by Zelda fans like the sec­ond com­ing, could make up for it. (Though I’m keep­ing my expec­ta­tions in check due to the dis­ap­point­ment that was Metroid: Other M.)

Dia­blo III

Release Date: TBA, 2011
Platform(s): PC

Bliz­zard has yet to announce a release date for its much-anticipated hack & slash sequel, but most fans of Bliz­zard games are accus­tomed to wait­ing. I just hope not for too much longer!

Child of Eden

Release Date: TBA, 2011
Platform(s): PlaySta­tion 3, Xbox 360

Remem­ber the shoot­ing game Rez?  (And how amaz­ing it was?)  Devel­oper Tet­suya Mizuguchi, the man who gave us Rez, returns with a new game sim­i­lar in con­cept and game­play.  Like Rez, the game­play will be a har­monic fusion of sound, vision and touch as play­ers rhyth­mi­cally shoot at var­i­ous tar­gets that pro­duce melodic sounds when destroyed.  I can’t wait to expe­ri­ence it in glo­ri­ous HD on my 60″ Mitsubishi.

Dead Island

Release Date: TBA, 2011
Platform(s): PC, PlaySta­tion 3, Xbox 360

When I first heard about Dead Island—a zom­bie sur­vival hor­ror FPS set on a deserted island—I dis­missed it as just another zom­bie game. But that was before I saw this trailer.

What games are you really look­ing for­ward to this year?

CircBoard Makes Typing on Game Consoles Faster, Less Annoying

From the “Why Hasn’t Any­body Thought of this Before?” department…

Typ­ing on video game con­soles is usu­ally a huge pain in the ass. Cir­cboard is a new on-screen key­board con­cept that wants to make your life eas­ier. Typ­i­cally, on-screen key­boards, like one 360 or PS3, try to emu­late a QWERTY key­board, and the process of “typ­ing” involves a lot of visual hunt and peck. And it’s slooooooooow.

Watch the Cir­cBoard Demo:

CircBoard’s con­cept is sim­ple, yet bril­liant. I like that its devel­op­ers adapted typ­ing to gam­ing, not the other way around. CircBoard’s method of typ­ing is more native to how con­trollers func­tion, and seems like it would be easy to learn. I could see typ­ing with Cir­cBoard eas­ily becom­ing sec­ond nature—like which spell com­bi­na­tions I cast in Oblivion.

Why not just buy a USB key­board, you say? Well, for one thing, I’d pre­fer not to have extra gam­ing periph­er­als clut­ter­ing up my liv­ing room. Two, I’m a fan of things that just work, and Cir­cBoard seems like an ele­gant solu­tion to a com­mon annoy­ance. It would make YouTube surf­ing from my couch a hel­luva lot easier.

I hope one day soon to see a solu­tion like Cir­cBoard on my next-gen console!

How do you manage your ever-growing media wish list?

WANTED:  A bet­ter solu­tion for dis­cov­er­ing and con­sum­ing new media.  First things first:  It seems inap­pro­pri­ate to call what I’m talk­ing about a “wish list” because…

A) I don’t nec­es­sar­ily intend to shop for and pur­chase said media, nor do I always want to receive it as a gift.  While there’s a bunch of great, free tools out there like Amazon’s Wish List and Wish Radar, these tools are geared more toward mak­ing a pur­chase and not mere consumption.

B) Most wish list tools are shopping-based and don’t cater well to old media like out-of-print books, hard-to-find movies, or retro/legacy games on dead plat­forms.  And what about obscure TV shows never released on DVD?  Try adding Out of this World to your Ama­zon wish list.

C) The media I’m inter­ested in isn’t always released yet. I often put upcom­ing movies, books, albums, and games on my list that may be a year or more away from a release date.  How do you account for these types of things using a wish list sys­tem that is based on available/purchasable products?

In short, my media wish list is more like a “To Do” list. I have a “To Play” list for games; a “To Watch” list for movies and TV shows; a “To Read” list for books; and a “To Lis­ten” list for new artists and album I want to check out.  I don’t nec­es­sar­ily call all these dif­fer­ent lists “To _______ Lists,” but that’s essen­tially what they are.  Their sole pur­pose is to help me dis­cover new media and keep it on my radar until I’ve had time to watch it, play it, read it, or lis­ten to it.

So how do I keep up with it all? Here is my system…of sorts:

1.  Post-Its and Paper Scraps — I am per­pet­u­ally writ­ing notes-to-self on Post-Its and paper scraps con­tain­ing unor­ga­nized, off-the-cuff lists of things I’ve heard about or read about in my online and offline trav­els.  For exam­ple, if I’m brows­ing a gamer forum and some user rec­om­mends a game that sounds like I might enjoy, I’ll write its name down, per­haps along­side a short note that lends some help­ful con­text like: “Shadow of the Comet (PC) — Love­craft­ian AG.”  If I hear a song I like on the radio while I’m out some­where, I’ll try to scrib­ble down lyrics so I can look it up later.  By the end of any given week, my mes­sen­ger bag’s outer pocket con­tains a stash of folded, wadded-up notes that I’ll later re-visit and add to my wish list(s), then toss the paper.

2.  Google Docs — My actual media wish list is a series of Google Docs con­tain­ing sep­a­rate lists for Movies/TV Shows, Music, Games, and Books.  These are, of course, neater than my hand­writ­ten notes but still pretty raw and orga­nized.  Also, there’s no real sense of pri­or­ity.  Depend­ing on the list, I might add some extra info, like release date/year for movies, plat­form and genre for games, etc.  I like stor­ing this info in Google Docs because I can access and man­age my lists as eas­ily as I do email.  Per­haps one day I’ll grad­u­ate to a more sophis­ti­cated Google Spread­sheet, but the Docs get me by for now.

3.  Plan-Ahead Shop­ping & Stream­ing — When I’m in the mood and can make the time to actu­ally watch/play/read/listen to some­thing, I’ll browse through my wish list(s) ahead of time and pick what­ever looks appetizing…followed by a trip to the store, library, Net­flix, iTunes, XBMC, tor­rent site, or wher­ever it is that I might pur­chase or down­load it.

4. Reviews, Rec­om­men­da­tions, & Taste Engines — Need­less to say, my media wish list is never empty, but it also doesn’t just con­tain things I stum­ble upon.  I will often seek out and dis­cover new media by con­sult­ing a per­son­al­ized arse­nal of review sites, rec­om­men­da­tion sites, and taste engines that includes Net­flix, Jinni, GoodReads, Ama­zon, GamerDNA, just to name a few.  Then there’s the count­less review and pre­view blogs that entice me to pile it on even thicker.  I do get a lot of gen­uinely great rec­om­men­da­tions this way, but as always, it seems more gets added to my lists vs. gets removed.

What this all this boils down to is that I’m approach­ing a state of media over­load and I need a bet­ter way to cope with it. Short of quit­ting my job and devot­ing all day to play­ing video games and watch­ing movies (a girl can dream, can’t she?), I need a bet­ter solu­tion that will track, pri­or­i­tize, remind me about, and remem­ber all this media that I plan to con­sume, whether it’s old, new, or unre­leased.  Is there a sin­gle sys­tem out there that can do all this?

The com­ments are wide open to your sug­ges­tions, app rec­om­men­da­tions, and/or pithy remarks about my being a media junkie with no life who needs help!

Geeky Gamer Jewelry on Etsy

As the site says on its home­page, Etsy is the place to buy and sell all things hand­made.  Here is a show­case of some of the coolest geeky gamer jew­elry I’ve found there, and the awe­some sell­ers who make it:

Pix­e­lated good­ness from an aptly-named seller, Pixel Party offers charm bracelets, cuf­flinks, ear­rings, and more in the clas­sic 8-bit style of your favorite video games.

The Gamer Gear Store sells unique-looking hand-sculpted pieces from “all school” video games, as well as other great geeky gear inspired by vin­tage comics and movies.

The Clay Col­lec­tion sells super cute minia­ture poly­mer clay ver­sions of your favorite video game acces­sories, hard­ware, and characters.

For those who want to wear their D20s instead of just rolling ‘em, Candy Corn Stu­dios sells beau­ti­ful, wear­able art made with the real thing.

I really heart the jew­elry that Omega­zoid sells.  Sim­ple plas­tic beads emu­late that 8-bit pixel look perfectly.

The two ladies behind Char­lie Carter Cre­ations sell awe­some clay jew­elry based on video games, and other geeky stuff like Futu­rama, Mup­pets, and child­hood toys.

Know of any other great Etsy sell­ers, or do you make and sell geeky/gamer jew­el­ery too?  Leave me a link to your store in the com­ments and I’ll add it to my list!

Who knew zombies could be so adorable?

Plants vs. Zom­bies is a new game by Pop­Cap that will be released on May 5th.  You can sign up on the Pop­Cap web­siteto play the game before the pub­lic release, plus get a 10% dis­count for the Mac or PC ver­sion.  Will the game be as awe­some as the music video?  Cute zom­bies and singing flowers—I don’t see how it could go wrong.

10 Gifts for Geeks for $10 or Less

With Christ­mas right around the cor­ner, I thought it would be fun (and hope­fully help­ful) to put together a list of inex­pen­sive gift ideas for geeks, all for under $10. (And I’m not going to cheat and men­tion $10 gift cards, either!)

Pocket LED Flashlight

“May it be a light to you in dark places…”

Every geek needs a good flash­light, and even bet­ter if it fits in our pocket!  Great for wran­gling with hard-to-see com­puter con­nec­tions or ven­tur­ing behind our A/V sys­tems to con­nect new gear, a bright LED flash­light is a must-have.  X-treme Geek sells a nice mini LED flash­light for just $9.99.

Bat­ter­ies

Geek Power-Ups

If there is one uni­ver­sal truth, it’s that geeks can ALWAYS use more bat­ter­ies.  Between our wire­less key­boards, wire­less mouses, dig­i­tal cam­eras, wire­less game con­trollers, A/V remotes, Nin­tendo DSs, PSPs, laser point­ers, giz­mos, gadgets–wait, what was I say­ing?  Oh right: MOAR BATTERIES!  You can’t go wrong giv­ing geeks a nice big pack of AA or AAA bat­ter­ies.  A tad imper­sonal, but extremely prac­ti­cal and def­i­nitely appreciated–particularly dur­ing those moments we real­ize our bat­tery sup­ply is crit­i­cally low and we dread thought of actu­ally get­ting up to change the channel.

Sharpies

For Your Sharpie Fetish

We love our Sharpies.  They’re great for every­thing from label­ing the lat­est disc of pirated legally down­load­able soft­ware you burned to Sharpie-ing per­verse things all over your friend’s face when he falls asleep drunk on your couch. (Don’t ask.)  From Ultra Fine Points to Sharpie Minis to good ‘ol Orig­i­nal, there’s a Sharpie prod­uct in a wide range of col­ors for every geek’s Sharpie fetish.

Bliz­zard Authenticator

I CAN HAZ SECURITY?

Over 11 mil­lion peo­ple play World of War­craft.  Odds are you know at least one of them, and have no idea what to get them for Christ­mas.  The Bliz­zard Authen­ti­ca­tor is a must-have acces­sory for any­one that plays WoW.  It pro­tects their account from key­log­gers, tro­jans, and other mali­cious attacks.  It’s a great gift and for just $6.50, it’s also super inexpensive.

Mole­sk­ine Pocket Journals

Low-tech pro­duc­tiv­ity app!

The “leg­endary note­book used for the past two cen­turies” (if you believe their mar­ket­ing bull), Mole­sk­ine brand note­books are a favorite low-tech vice of writ­ers, artists, and geeks to cer­e­mo­ni­ously com­mit our thoughts and sketches to paper.  Though the full-size note­books are a bit pricey, you can score a pack of 3 cashier pocket Mole­sk­ines for about $8, blank or lined.  These pocket-sized jour­nals are per­fect for keep­ing in your pocket (shocker) to make quick lists or reg­is­ter ran­dom ideas on the fly.

Dice Set

Roll to see if you have a life…

For the D&D nerds, Magic play­ers, and board game geeks on your list, a set of shiny new dice makes for a very thought­ful and use­ful gift.  What’s your geek’s favorite color?  Odds are you can find a cool-looking set of dice to match.  Board Game Cen­tral has a great selec­tion of 6-sided and d20 dice sets all for under $10.

Caf­feine

Energy in a can!

Whether it’s in the form of cof­fee, chai tea, energy drinks, or soda, most of us geeks require an end­less sup­ply of caf­feine to help us through our late night cod­ing projects, marathon gam­ing ses­sions, and the abysmal work day that fol­lows.  Though cases of the really good stuff like Bawls and Jolt are on the pricey side, for less than $10 you can still give your geek a smaller-serving caf­feinated shot in the arm.  How about gift­ing a sam­pler of 20 oz. energy drinks, or a trio of cof­fees or teas?   Also try Pacific Chai, Mon­ster Energy, and there’s always Red Bull.

Comic Books

Mmm…new comic smell!

Comic books have evolved so much over the years, it’s per­haps more appro­pri­ate to think of them as read­able works of art than the hum­ble col­or­ful dis­trac­tions they used to be.  As the qual­ity has gone up, so has the price, but you can still walk into any comic shop and pick up some great new issues with that glo­ri­ous new comic smell for less than $10.  And with so many dif­fer­ent titles to choose from, you’re sure to find some­thing for every­one.  Who knows, you might even get your geek hooked on an awe­some new series.  There’s also manga for the Japanophile on your list.

Thinker Toys

FACT: Play­ing with toys helps you get work done.

Between writ­ing, brain­storm­ing, trou­bleshoot­ing, or fig­ur­ing out why our damn pro­gram isn’t work­ing, geeks need some kind of imme­di­ate stress reliever/creativity spark by our side.  Give your geek some inex­pen­sive “thinker toys” for his or her desk.  Try some Silly Putty, Play Doh, Koosh balls, or per­haps a “thinky Slinky”?  Or go for the clas­sic Rubik’s Cube (though it may cause more stress than it alle­vi­ates).  Any­thing goes, as long as it’s small, mildly enter­tain­ing, and keeps our hands and minds momen­tar­ily busy.

Com­puter Clean­ing Products

Handy for remov­ing yesterday’s lunch from your keyboard.

Geeks love their com­put­ers and gad­gets but it can be a nev­erend­ing bat­tle to keep them clean.  Crumbs in the key­board, fin­ger­prints on the lap­top screen; these are our per­pet­ual annoy­ances.  Which is why any geek can appre­ci­ate a lit­tle help to keep our LCD mon­i­tors and iPhone touch­screens sparkly clean.  Sta­ples sells a nice lit­tle key­board brush for less than $5 and a mini screen cleaner for under $10.

Hope I’ve given you some good ideas for the geeks on your Christ­mas shop­ping list!